BY ROD HANSEN

Parents with children in one Center Woods Elementary School class received a special Mother’s Day present this year.

Students in Barbara Grantz’s third-grade class crafted special butterfly houses as Mother’s Day gifts, in a project that taught the youths the finer points of art and of building a structure out of raw materials.

“This was a good project, because it was the first time some of these kids had even held a hammer. It’s fun, but it also shows them a new skill,” Grantz said.

Kits for the butterfly houses came courtesy of the Merrimack Home Depot, while a local parent led the class in assembling them on Wednesday, May 9.

Michael Hamilton, father of Zachary, 9, said he guided the students through the building process by demonstrating each of the five steps one at a time and allowing the students and the adult volunteers to follow his lead.

A total of 11 volunteers participated in the activity, with the group comprising fathers and grandfathers as well as mothers, Grantz said.

“It was encouraging to have fathers help on the project, just because the volunteers are usually mothers,” said Grantz.

Hamilton agreed it was a productive experience, although for some students it constituted their first experience holding a hammer.

“They did a good job, and the kids’ small hands were actually helpful in letting them hold the nails,” said Hamilton, who drew on his experience as a youth soccer and baseball coach in teaching the students.

Along with building the houses, students also decorated them according to their own design using paints and thumbprint drawings.

Although Grantz said she expected the houses to serve a mainly decorative purpose rather than as a home for winged hedylidae, she said the students will be studying the creatures in an upcoming unit in which they will raise an insect from its larval stages.

“There really isn’t any relation between our butterfly houses and our butterfly project,” Grantz said. “The fact that the two are happening close together is just luck.”